hodge-podge

Clicked My Heels Three Times

I'm here in Kansas for a week and have access to a computer that actually will upload these darn pictures (My computer is D-E-A-D!!). I know it has been forever since my last post. Sorry! Life in the city is busy busy busy!

An UPDATE: Jonno is back in school this quarter. He's working full time with a restaurant supply company that encourages advancement. I like the idea of that especially since he seems to like it there and his benefits are nice.

We've had some serious downs, but I think we're on our way back up and are even talking baby, but I wouldn't bet on the production crew coming in anytime soon. Our lives are still to topsy turvy, besides we just found out my cousin is going to have a baby! This is my family's first baby since I was born so we're all pretty excited.

I've taken a break from school (although I only have two classes left) to improve my mental health, social and religious life, three parts of me that need some serious attention! I've finally gotten a job that I adore with co-workers that I also adore. We work long hours, but working for an international company geared to make the lives of children of all incomes and races better isn't for the lazy. I've taken over as the head of our region's space in a women's/ homeless shelter that we supply with all of the supplies one of our classrooms would have including teachers. Everyday I'm challenged by my students, but it is like a fun game to me to come up with new lessons and activities that trick them into preparing for Kindergarten and learning. I laugh so much at work. I still can't believe that pay me for this.

We're settling into Seattle and our new lifestyle, I think. I was in Lawrence yesterday and didn't realize how much I had missed it. I've found my favorite place in the whole world, Carkeek Park and have made contact with the park stewards to begin taking classes on how to become a steward as well. Those won't begin until the winter and salmon seasons pass.

We've found some restaurants and coffee places we like to frequent. There's this little coffee place just a stone's throw away from our apartment. They're always open. I swear they'll be open during the apocalypse because their baristas are so dedicated.

Jonno's been anxious to start taking Brazilian Ju Jitsu classes from the school/family that founded this style of martial art. From what I gathered, it is the style and family that basically started the ball rolling on mixed martial arts and the UFC, which we all know he really enjoys. I don't want him to go to these classes because they couldn't be a worse part of town, but who am I to keep a man from his bloody, broken head and bruised dreams? I just hope that's the other guy and not my handsome Cat.

Of course we've done all of the touristy things and have learned that we love eating at the rotating restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. We also love eating the good seafood. Can you tell we're no strangers to the dinner table?! All I can talk about is eating!!

We've had some visitors and even spent Thanksgiving with some of Jonno's family in Portland. We had a great time and Romeo made a new friend with our cousin Rachel's dog. She's a big dog named Lola and Romeo loves her. The two of them played so hard during our Thanksgiving that Romeo passed out in the car on the way home. Because he was so tired, he was sleeping so soundly on my lap I had to check him to make sure he wasn't dead!

So these are part of the pictures of Mom and Todd's trip to visit Jonno and I for our birthdays and just of our lives in Seattle.

Here is Romeo in THE snow. Seattle hasn't had a snow like this in 20+ years. Of course it happens after we move there and throw away our ice scraper!

On one of our snow days Jonno and I went on a 1/2 day hike down to Carkeek. Isn't it breath-taking?

On our way back from the hike we stopped at our little place to get these delicious brownies and some hot chocolate (since I can't have coffee anymore!)

One of the Carkeek trails.

The beach at Carkeek covered in snow.

A view of the beach.

This is part of the road down to Carkeek.

Take at a look at those hikers! And yes... it is true Jonno is minus one beard! He had has to keep clean shaven for his job. Apparently, their a conservative company and don't allow beards.

This is one of the boats in the annual lighted boat parade. It looks a lot like the boat in "Spirited Away" doesn't it?

Our little Christmas tree. Jonno bought me a real one this year since I was having a bit bahhumbugitis.

Our first gingerbread house! We made it then Jonno ate it!

This is a wall in one of the parks downtown.

Our bathroom... hmmm wonder what we use that drill for? :S

Our little, but organized entry way. I designed this and now I don't loose my keys anymore!

This is an entryway to church in a vineyard on San Juan Island. This is a beautiful place where most people come b/c of the orca whale pods that travel close to its shores. Although the whales are great, I recommend you visit this place in the off season as well.

Here are the rows of grapes covered to prevent frost and bug damage.

There's the side view of the church. What you can't see were the droves of immigrant works that were resting on the hillside just behind the church. We were not received well as we crossed their space to enter the church.

This is Roche Harbor.

At Lime Kiln State Park we saw this little guy. Romeo was transfixed with him. It was hilarious to watch him try to scamper over the huge rocks that lined the coastline as he tried to get as close as he could to sea lion.

These trees, I wish I could remember their name now, were scattered throughout the park. Their roots and limbs we bent and crooked in ways that reminded me of fairy tales and enchanted forests. So I tried to climb them in an attempt to be a fairy.

This is my handsome of the handsomest husband. How do we not have 10 kids by now?

Here's our little guy! Look at that determination on his face! He wanted sea lion for lunch!

Mom and Todd, don't they look like a good match?

Here's the shoreline everyone tries to see the whales from.

This was before we ever got to San Juan. Romeo and Jonno are waiting for the ferry in this picture.

Todd in a Napoleon-esqe stance on drift wood at Carkeek Park.

Me on that same piece. I'm so happy at Carkeek. It is my favorite place in the whole world.

Jonno and I at Pike Place Brewery. When you're married it seems like you can never take a picture where you both look spot on. Maybe we had been drinking?

Me... and what the heck am I doing?! We're at SPUDS, the greatest fish'n'chips place in Seattle.

the seattle-sized post

We've been in Seattle forver a month now and I'm just getting to this post. This last month hasn't been the easiest. Moving away from home and starting a new life away from friends and family has been a bit of a chunk of experience bigger than we were ready to chew. The weekends have been so much fun though, almost like a vacation. It seems every time we venture outside of our front door we are vacationing.

We can't start the great Seattle post without remembering what I left behind. These are my students from Kansas.

Aren't they cute?!

And now, the trip begins. Is our little car loaded down or what?!

St. Joseph, MO right after we had left Patty and Dennis' house. I was relaxing all ready!

Here's Iowa, or South Dakota, maybe Nebraska? I dunno, but we weren't in Kansas anymore.

We managed to drive though most of South Dakota in the night. When the sun rose the next day we had dead presidents staring at us! Ahhh! It's JFK!

And the Gipper, South Dakota must be okay after all.

More dead presidents! Is this state morbid or what?!

Mt. Rushmore was pretty cool though, but we had to sneek Romeo in illegally. Apparently, dogs aren't allowed to see presidents.

Look! There was a Gardner here before us. Miles Gardner was one of the workers who made Mt. Rushmore.

I think this is the tail end of SD or maybe the small corner of Wyoming we cut across.
Romeo didn't care about much of this. He slept most of the drive there.
I'm pretty sure this is Montana. Seriously, this trip was nothing but a blur!
Oh yeah... maybe that was Wyoming before.
We saw some teepees around Custer's last stand.


And Romeo still didn't care.
Yeah rocks!
And hills.
And more hills! Are we there yet?!
Nope, there were still more rocks to see.

And a beautiful hill in the morning. (I had slept through Idaho.)
And flat landscape... could this be Washington?!
We are in Washington! And surprise it is raining!!!
And raining harder... are we to Seattle yet?!
Romeo thinks so!

We are!! This is the floating bridge. (We know it as the 520 now.)
Tunnel!!!
And highways!!!
And buildings!!!
More buildings!!

And more tunnels!
We're almost to our apartment!
This the view from our apartment. It hasn't changed since we got here.
And the view from our balcony.
Our first weekend we wanted to see the whales. We decided to go to Anacortes. They were having a music and art festival so we decided to look around.

It was Jonno and Romeo's first times to a pier.
It's a boat in a boat!!
It's a Cat and a Tot!
Yay water!
Anacortes was cute.

And eerily similar to older places in Kansas.
We had a good time. And I ate crab cakes for the first time.
The second weekend, during our craigslisting adventures, we made it west Seattle.
The city!
And industrial type things!

The harbor, I think that's what it is.
And this magical place called the Starbucks Center. When you see this mermaid, think Godzilla size... she was huge!
And kinda scary...
A whole center just for Starbucks?! Whoa.
Let's go home now!

Ohno! We took a wrong turn and now we're really downtown!!
But it is cute.
But busy.
What a cute old fire station!
And the buildings are so tall!

Really tall.
And the buses have accordians in the middle of them! I love to sit in the bendy part.
The tallness of the city has worn off by now.
This is downtown the day I got my city haircut.
And the building where the salon is.

We went to the Pike Place market after my haircut. Of course, I naturally went to the very first Starbucks!
What a view!
Jonno's pretty pleased with it.
Oh yeah... that's a good view too!
Time to go home again... Did we every make it back?

Wait, there's flowers at the market to see! Lots of flowers.
And people's butts.
This is inside the main level of the market.
Some remnants of cool old Seattle remain.
This is from the third weekend we were here. We decided to go to Arlington for a salmon bake and festival. (Norwesters really love festivals!)

Here we are!
Tent city!
And sand sculptures!
And crazy tree climbing! (He had on special shoes to climb that tree even!)
Lots of trees to climb. I decided to stay on the ground.

On the way home we found giant percolator!
That same weekend we went to the park. This place used to be an oil refinery, but they turned it into a pretty cool park off of Lake Union.
Pretty neat huh?
Shimmering Lake DeVictor! Oh... no that's Lake Union and the city!
And some dude playing with his dingy... pervert.

And knights! This is a cool park!
Another shot of the city as we head to Kite Hill!
The view from the top of Kite Hill.
It's a pretty sweet view.
Yeah.

And a little cloudy that day in Seattle... big surprise.
With all this adventuring we got hungry! Time to go to our store!
Jonno and I think this place should be called Breakfast Anytime We're Open. We say this because in our fourth weekend we decided to go to the Pike Place market to shop. Being Kansans, we knew we had to get to the market shortly after the sun did or all of the good produce would be taken. Not so in Seattle!!! Farmer's markets don't open until 9!!! We got to Pike Place at 630am and this restaurant was not open!
More of old Seattle.
Pike Place before it is open.

It's actually quite pretty when it isn't being mobbed with people.
The sterotypical Pike Place shot.
Part of the market, just opening.
Inside the market... still too early to be open.

Mmmmm....
Cool signs...
And quite places... this is not typical.
Also not typical... Mia smiling this big before 8am. If you look behind us you'll see why I could smile so big so early.
Pirates took over Starbucks!!

Ahh... more shops...
and EVIL CHICKENS!!! AHH!!!
Who's that in the window?
Ohh... I see what's in this window... yum.
Ahhh... time to relax near home. We're at Richmond Beach!

Gotta wear the raincoat. It is standard dress here.
The beach on a cloudy day.
Romeo loves the beach.
Romeo loves Jonno.
He loves watching the waves come in and go out. And we love watching him!!

The SEATTLE post.... not quite yet...

Here's your taster!! More posts about our move to Seattle later! Doesn't our car look insane?

Now, to more important stuff! No, it isn't my cleavage it is the beginning of the pictures from our 2nd wedding anniversary! I got a pretty new necklace!

Awwww... it is enough to make you sick.

We went to Yokohama (in Lawrence). This is supposed to be tatami mat seating. Wiki tatami and you'll see why that is SOOOO wrong!

This is the inside.

And that's me in my new outfit! Woot.

This is the outside of Yokohama. Oh Lawrence, I miss you.

After a quick change of clothes we were off! But to where?

To get CHEESECAKE ON A STICK!! Look out cheesecake! You don't stand a chance!

And you penut butter cookie dipped in chocolate, you are no match for the Cat!

After all of the eating we walked it off at a fun day of rollercoasters and what not at World's of Fun. What a great anniversary! Stay tuned for my Seattle instalment... maybe.

P.S. Everyone say a BIG prayer for my SIL. She's havin' a baby tomorrow!!! :D

It Happened at the Romeo's Birthday!

(How devine is this?! An ELVIS movie set in Seattle, translated into ITALIAN!!!)

Today is the 5th. After the bash and crash of the 4th, Romeo's birthday, and what was most of my summer... we're finally decided on moving to Seattle. I actually believe that really God had decided for us and this is why...





Starting this whole story in motion was Jonno's graduation and my up and coming graduation. It was time, as in the time is up, for me to decide what the heck I want to do. My WHOLE life children of been inadventanly put in my path (not as in mother's shoving them in front of me) through school, activities and the determination of people telling me I should be a teacher.





So, bound and determined to prove them all wrong (I'm terrible with kids right?!) I applied for this camp position in some unnamed place in Washington, assuming I wouldn't even get the job because I didn't have enough experience. (Granted this was after I had applied for my current job 6 months ago assuming I wouldn't get it because I didn't have enough experience and now they want me to be a lead teacher after hiring me for program director.)





During the application process I said, in jest, to Jonno, "Hey it would be really easy for us to move to Washington if I got this job. I could look for places to live during my weekends off." Which set him in motion applying for graduate schools there.





I got the camp job in Washington (and remember I found this job in some remote section of craigslist), but turned it down after being offered the sweet position I have now.





So... that closed the book on us moving, right?





NO, just a week or two later Jonno got accepted to a school in WA. Now, we're going.





No wait... I have to get a job first and so does he. Our first problem was getting cash monies to get to Seattle for interviews. Problem mysterously solved. Our second was lack of experience. Problem mysteriously solved. In fact, I remember before this all started I said a prayer to God. I said, "Lord, Jonno and I are at a turning point in our lives. Where should we go and what should we do? Can you make it so obvious for us that there is no doubt what we should do?"


Three interviews later and I've got them all, including a job that would be so dumb for me to pass up.





That was the beginning of June. The rest of the summer as been spent pacing the floors, selling our furniture (possbily in vain?!), and packing (for no reason?!) as we waited for Jonno to get a job. In the end of June he went for interviews and in the last week we've been hearing back from these places. The first response was no, they'd had people with more experience apply.


(This was the point where I had a melt down. We weren't going. I wanted to go now that I was sure we weren't. I cried and cried and threw a huge fit. REAL mature.) The VERY next day Jonno heard back from the second place. They had filled the position he had interviewed for BUT someone else had put in notice... would he like a job?! Could he start the 4th of August?





I mean GEEZ! REALLY?! Could it be anymore devine? Not only had someone been moved just for Jonno, but God was making the move time PERFERCT (considering just days before this we had put out move out date of the 31st in with our landlady).





There are so many instances of devine intervention. I'm not doing it justice, but I really feel at this moment that we must go to Seattle. We're being placed there for a reason.





In the thick of this it was Romeo's birthday yesterday. He turned 3 (or 21)! He got ice cream, and a new pig toy to tear to shreds. Thank you grandma! Today he's back to his usual tricks!





HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBS!!!





Jonno's been offered a job as an accountant.

TEXAS

Night time in the airport...one of us is sleepy. The other is not...

Shapes! (They looked cool when I was tired!)

Fishes in the hotel lobby!

Texas shapped waffle! How about a little geography with your syrup?

Here were are at a bbq place. Everything WAS bigger in Texas, including Jonno's appetite!

Downtown Dallas. We made it here without dying on the freeway! YAY! This building was designed by I.M. Pei.

Ooops! This was a picture from my trip to the rainforest... actually, we're in the Dallas Aquarium! But where are the fish?!

Looks like this guy ate them all! He was HUGE!!! I'd say he was longer than my car and almost wider!

"I'm a manatee!" (but not a fish! Where are the fish?)

AHH!!

Is this a fish?! Yes is it! CREEPY!

And this one too! CREEPY!

AHH!! Fish are CREEPYYY!!

Whew! Good things that's over. Let's watch some penguins kissing... awwwww!

Flamingos!

And the aquarium's entrance... heeeyyy...

What the heck is that? Texas's version of Godzilla?

The market!

Nice melons, market...

Our detour to Italy! Ciao Texas!

And what this WHOLE trip was for... RADIOHEAD!!! *said using my best teeange scream*

Rainbow? For their "In Rainbows" tour? Too perfect.

Crazy light shows!

I'm telling you this was insane to see!

Whoa.

Look at us... we still can't believe it!

After the show was over.

Time to repent! Off to the Byzantine church in Houston!

And some really bad art!

We must hide from the bad art in the bamboo! Hide Jonno! Hide!!

Noooo, silly Jonno! HIDE in the bamboo! (It must be time for lunch.)

But first, MORE ART!

Can somebody pronounce this?!

Look, we caught a dinosaur!

.... and then went to Pompeii.

Whoa. I'm convinced this sign ate my cellphone.

Or maybe the church did?

No no no... the STREET did it! Darn you street in Houston! Oh well... cellphone or no, it was time to move on.

Welcome to Zavalla! After a jaunt of losing my cellphone and getting a speeding ticket it was time to eat!

And sight see... that's it, no... really... this is what we saw.

"Ugghh.... we've been in the car too long! "

"Curse you Jonno!"

"Curse me? Why not kiss me?! smooch, smooch!

"Rawr! I am a tiger that will eat your kisses!"

"Fine! I'll just pick my nose while this Mexican guy watches."

"Ohhh... that reminds me, maybe I left my cellphone up there!"

Back to Dallas, look at all of the bugs we've killed during our long journey.

Shiny ball! Let's go there!

Alas! It was impossible to get to. Let's get a drink instead.

So close! Let's go home.

MY DREAM JOB!!! OMG!!!

At 25 I've been offered my dream job. I just can't believe it. The Great B.H. called me yesterday and said they'd like to hire me. I said, "YAY! I love you guys!" and the lady on the phone said "We love you too!!" LOL.



I'm pretty excited, but my head is spinning with everything that is happening right now.



Next week Jonno goes to Seattle for interviews and job hunting.

The week after that is our two year wedding anniversary and we certainly have to celebrate the heck out of this one!!

The week after that is the 4th of July and Jonno and I are going ot Pittsburg.

And the week after that Jonno will probably be moving to Seattle.



In the meantime, we've been apartment hunting, going home as much as possible, packing and getting rid of our things, cleaning, working. I've been working on school stuff. What a mess.



Pictures of the maddness are coming!